Player's Handbook · Chapter 2

How to Begin

New here? You need no prior knowledge — only a sense of the life you want to try.

Three ways to begin

Create my own world. Shape the medieval world you want to live in, from a small grounded starting point or with deeper detail. Then create your character and begin play.

Start quickly. Choose the kind of ordinary life you want to begin with, answer a focused set of questions, and start playing. This is the fastest way into a campaign in a world that already exists.

Play an example world. A ready-to-play flagship world is planned for later. It is not available yet.

What Start Quickly offers

Eight starting lives — circumstances, not classes:

  • Village Laborer — ordinary physical work: farm, harvest, estate, building, woods, animals, day labor.
  • Craft Apprentice — learning a trade under someone who knows it.
  • Traveling Merchant — buying, carrying, and selling on a small scale.
  • Returning Soldier — ordinary service behind you, ordinary life ahead.
  • Minor Noble — a recognized place, with all its limits; status without fantasy privilege.
  • Landless Wanderer — between places, free to move; simply traveling is enough.
  • Household Member — life centered on home, family, and shared daily work.
  • Shopkeeper / Craftsperson — working a small livelihood at bench, oven, forge, or counter.

These are starting shapes, not destinies. You still create your character — name, history, skills from real experience, resources, relationships. The world may adapt a choice to fit what it supports, or withhold one that does not fit. Nothing is granted automatically: no free mastery, tools, wealth, land, or position.

What play looks like

You say what your character actually tries to do. The world answers through ordinary life: work, markets, households, travel, people, seasons, news, consequences. A quiet day of steady work counts. There is no quest log and no required arc — pursue something, change direction, or simply live well.

Start with the life. See what becomes of it.

Manual updated Sep 9, 2026.